Saturday, October 29, 2016

A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (General Motors) decided
to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard
to reach their peak performance before the race.

On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the
reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management
was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.

Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people paddling and 1 person
steering, while the American team had 7 people steering and 2 people paddling.
Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a consulting
company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They
advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not
enough people were paddling.

Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another
loss to the Japanese, the paddling team's management structure was totally
reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 2 area steering superintendents and 1
assistant superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 2 people
paddling the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the 'Rowing
Team Quality First Program,' with meetings, dinners and free pens for the
paddlers. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other
equipment, extra vacation days for practices, and bonuses. The pension program
was trimmed to 'equal the competition' and some of the resultant savings were
channeled into morale boosting programs and teamwork posters.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid off one paddler, halted development
of a new canoe, sold all the paddles, and cancelled all capital investments for
new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as
bonuses.

The next year, try as he might, the lone designated paddler was
unable to even finish the race (having no paddles), so he was laid off for
unacceptable performance, all canoe equipment was sold and the next year's
racing team was out-sourced to India.

Sadly, the End.

Here's something else to think about: GM has spent the last thirty years
moving all its factories out of the US, claiming they can't make money paying
American wages.

TOYOTA has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants
inside the US. The last quarter's results:

TOYOTA makes 4 billion in profits
while GM racks up 9 billion in losses.GM folks are still scratching their heads,
and collecting bonuses...